Bessemer Trust Company, the wealth management firm Britney Spears originally requested to oversee her finances instead of her father, has requested to resign its role from her conservatorship.
Bessemer Trust was appointed by the court in November to serve as co-conservator of the pop icon’s estimated $60 million estate alongside her father Jamie Spears. The bank company had not taken any action and fees nor received any of the assets from her estate. Britney had previously asked the court to immediately remove her father from his role overseeing her financial affairs in a court filing at the time Bessemer Trust was appointed.
According to The New York Times, Bessemer Trust outlined in a new filing on Thursday (July 1) the firm’s desire to resign from the conservatorship “due to changed circumstances,” citing Britney’s public disdain for the “abusive” arrangement in her harrowing court hearing last week. The bank company claimed in the new court papers it was told Britney’s conservatorship was voluntary and the singer had consented to its role as co-conservator of her estate but was surprised to hear her adamantly express her desire to see it come to an end.
“As a result of the conservatee’s testimony at the June 23 hearing, however, Petitioner has become aware that the Conservatee objects to the continuance of her Conservatorship and desires to terminate the conservatorship. Petitioner has heard the Conservatee and respects her wishes,” the court filing states.
If Bessemer Trust were to be removed from her conservatorship, that would leave Jamie the sole conservator overseeing his daughter’s finances. He has not been the conservator over her person since 2019, when professional fiduciary care manager Jodi Montgomery temporarily took over for Jamie, who cited “personal health reasons” for stepping down from her post in court papers in September. Montgomery has continued to oversee Britney’s medical and personal affairs since then.
Britney’s court-appointed attorney Samuel D. Ingham III reminded the court earlier this year that his client wants her father to be removed from his conservator post. During a heated status hearing in February, Ingham told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny that Bessemer Trust should have equal decision-making powers as Jamie, arguing in earlier court papers that if the powers were not equal, he couldn’t imagine a “better recipe for conflict between the co-conservators and confusion with both BRITNEY and third parties” and that “the appointment of Bessemer Trust would be rendered meaningless.”
